NINAWA
Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces and Ezidi fighters managed to capture 40 ISIL members and kill another 15 in the northern governorate of Ninawa on Saturday, an Ezidi commander has said.
“Peshmerga forces supported Ezidi fighters who detained 40 ISIL members around Sinjar town,” Ezidi commander Nawaf Khadida al-Sinjari told an Anadolu Agency correspondent.
The captured ISIL members are Iraqi nationals from the Sinjar area and have been locked in a security base, al-Sinjari said.
Peshmerga forces also repelled an ISIL attack and killed 15 ISIL militants in the Hamash area located 15km northeast of Sinjar, a Peshmerga source said.
“15 ISIL militants were killed and others have escaped,” he said.
According to the source, most of the killed ISIL militants were involved in the kidnapping of Ezidi women in Sinjar five months ago.
ISIL had previously been in control of Sinjar, located 77 miles west of Mosul. The group began its large-scale campaign that tore through Iraq there, an area that is home to many Ezidis.
Ezidi women and girls were the target of sexual violence and slavery in ISIL captivity.
Kurdish Peshmerga forces were able to defeat ISIL after three days of clashes and took control of Sinjar on Dec. 20.
The Ezidi population is estimated at 600,000 and a number of Ezidi minority groups live in Turkey, Syria, Iran, Georgia and Armenia.
Iraq has been gripped by a security vacuum since June, when ISIL militants stormed the northern province of Mosul and declared what it calls a caliphate in Iraq and Syria.
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